5 Linux USB gadget configured through configfs
16 A USB Linux Gadget is a device which has a UDC (USB Device Controller) and can
17 be connected to a USB Host to extend it with additional functions like a serial
18 port or a mass storage capability.
20 A gadget is seen by its host as a set of configurations, each of which contains
21 a number of interfaces which, from the gadget's perspective, are known as
22 functions, each function representing e.g. a serial connection or a SCSI disk.
24 Linux provides a number of functions for gadgets to use.
26 Creating a gadget means deciding what configurations there will be
27 and which functions each configuration will provide.
29 Configfs (please see Documentation/filesystems/configfs/*) lends itself nicely
30 for the purpose of telling the kernel about the above mentioned decision.
31 This document is about how to do it.
33 It also describes how configfs integration into gadget is designed.
41 In order for this to work configfs must be available, so CONFIGFS_FS must be
42 'y' or 'm' in .config. As of this writing USB_LIBCOMPOSITE selects CONFIGFS_FS.
50 (The original post describing the first function
51 made available through configfs can be seen here:
52 http://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-usb/msg76388.html)
54 $ modprobe libcomposite
55 $ mount none $CONFIGFS_HOME -t configfs
57 where CONFIGFS_HOME is the mount point for configfs
59 1. Creating the gadgets
60 -----------------------
62 For each gadget to be created its corresponding directory must be created:
64 $ mkdir $CONFIGFS_HOME/usb_gadget/<gadget name>
68 $ mkdir $CONFIGFS_HOME/usb_gadget/g1
74 $ cd $CONFIGFS_HOME/usb_gadget/g1
76 Each gadget needs to have its vendor id <VID> and product id <PID> specified:
78 $ echo <VID> > idVendor
79 $ echo <PID> > idProduct
81 A gadget also needs its serial number, manufacturer and product strings.
82 In order to have a place to store them, a strings subdirectory must be created
83 for each language, e.g.:
87 Then the strings can be specified:
89 $ echo <serial number> > strings/0x409/serialnumber
90 $ echo <manufacturer> > strings/0x409/manufacturer
91 $ echo <product> > strings/0x409/product
93 2. Creating the configurations
94 ------------------------------
96 Each gadget will consist of a number of configurations, their corresponding
97 directories must be created:
99 $ mkdir configs/<name>.<number>
101 where <name> can be any string which is legal in a filesystem and the
102 <number> is the configuration's number, e.g.:
110 Each configuration also needs its strings, so a subdirectory must be created
111 for each language, e.g.:
113 $ mkdir configs/c.1/strings/0x409
115 Then the configuration string can be specified:
117 $ echo <configuration> > configs/c.1/strings/0x409/configuration
119 Some attributes can also be set for a configuration, e.g.:
121 $ echo 120 > configs/c.1/MaxPower
123 3. Creating the functions
124 -------------------------
126 The gadget will provide some functions, for each function its corresponding
127 directory must be created:
129 $ mkdir functions/<name>.<instance name>
131 where <name> corresponds to one of allowed function names and instance name
132 is an arbitrary string allowed in a filesystem, e.g.:
134 $ mkdir functions/ncm.usb0 # usb_f_ncm.ko gets loaded with request_module()
140 Each function provides its specific set of attributes, with either read-only
141 or read-write access. Where applicable they need to be written to as
143 Please refer to Documentation/ABI/*/configfs-usb-gadget* for more information.
145 4. Associating the functions with their configurations
146 ------------------------------------------------------
148 At this moment a number of gadgets is created, each of which has a number of
149 configurations specified and a number of functions available. What remains
150 is specifying which function is available in which configuration (the same
151 function can be used in multiple configurations). This is achieved with
152 creating symbolic links:
154 $ ln -s functions/<name>.<instance name> configs/<name>.<number>
158 $ ln -s functions/ncm.usb0 configs/c.1
164 5. Enabling the gadget
165 ----------------------
167 All the above steps serve the purpose of composing the gadget of
168 configurations and functions.
170 An example directory structure might look like this:
175 ./strings/0x409/serialnumber
176 ./strings/0x409/product
177 ./strings/0x409/manufacturer
180 ./configs/c.1/ncm.usb0 -> ../../../../usb_gadget/g1/functions/ncm.usb0
181 ./configs/c.1/strings
182 ./configs/c.1/strings/0x409
183 ./configs/c.1/strings/0x409/configuration
184 ./configs/c.1/bmAttributes
185 ./configs/c.1/MaxPower
188 ./functions/ncm.usb0/ifname
189 ./functions/ncm.usb0/qmult
190 ./functions/ncm.usb0/host_addr
191 ./functions/ncm.usb0/dev_addr
203 Such a gadget must be finally enabled so that the USB host can enumerate it.
204 In order to enable the gadget it must be bound to a UDC (USB Device Controller).
206 $ echo <udc name> > UDC
208 where <udc name> is one of those found in /sys/class/udc/*
211 $ echo s3c-hsotg > UDC
214 6. Disabling the gadget
215 -----------------------
222 Remove functions from configurations:
224 $ rm configs/<config name>.<number>/<function>
226 where <config name>.<number> specify the configuration and <function> is
227 a symlink to a function being removed from the configuration, e.g.:
229 $ rm configfs/c.1/ncm.usb0
235 Remove strings directories in configurations
237 $ rmdir configs/<config name>.<number>/strings/<lang>
241 $ rmdir configs/c.1/strings/0x409
247 and remove the configurations
249 $ rmdir configs/<config name>.<number>
259 Remove functions (function modules are not unloaded, though)
261 $ rmdir functions/<name>.<instance name>
265 $ rmdir functions/ncm.usb0
271 Remove strings directories in the gadget
273 $ rmdir strings/<lang>
277 $ rmdir strings/0x409
279 and finally remove the gadget:
282 $ rmdir <gadget name>
291 Implementation design
292 =====================
294 Below the idea of how configfs works is presented.
295 In configfs there are items and groups, both represented as directories.
296 The difference between an item and a group is that a group can contain
297 other groups. In the picture below only an item is shown.
298 Both items and groups can have attributes, which are represented as files.
299 The user can create and remove directories, but cannot remove files,
300 which can be read-only or read-write, depending on what they represent.
302 The filesystem part of configfs operates on config_items/groups and
303 configfs_attributes which are generic and of the same type for all
304 configured elements. However, they are embedded in usage-specific
305 larger structures. In the picture below there is a "cs" which contains
306 a config_item and an "sa" which contains a configfs_attribute.
308 The filesystem view would be like this:
319 Whenever a user reads/writes the "sa" file, a function is called
320 which accepts a struct config_item and a struct configfs_attribute.
321 In the said function the "cs" and "sa" are retrieved using the well
322 known container_of technique and an appropriate sa's function (show or
323 store) is called and passed the "cs" and a character buffer. The "show"
324 is for displaying the file's contents (copy data from the cs to the
325 buffer), while the "store" is for modifying the file's contents (copy data
326 from the buffer to the cs), but it is up to the implementer of the
327 two functions to decide what they actually do.
329 typedef struct configured_structure cs;
330 typedef struct specific_attribute sa;
333 +----------------------------------+
334 cs | (*show)(cs *, buffer); |
335 +-----------------+ | (*store)(cs *, buffer, length); |
337 | +-------------+ | | +------------------+ |
338 | | struct |-|----|------>|struct | |
339 | | config_item | | | |configfs_attribute| |
340 | +-------------+ | | +------------------+ |
341 | | +----------------------------------+
344 +-----------------+ .
346 The file names are decided by the config item/group designer, while
347 the directories in general can be named at will. A group can have
348 a number of its default sub-groups created automatically.
350 For more information on configfs please see
351 Documentation/filesystems/configfs/*.
353 The concepts described above translate to USB gadgets like this:
355 1. A gadget has its config group, which has some attributes (idVendor,
356 idProduct etc) and default sub-groups (configs, functions, strings).
357 Writing to the attributes causes the information to be stored in
358 appropriate locations. In the configs, functions and strings sub-groups
359 a user can create their sub-groups to represent configurations, functions,
360 and groups of strings in a given language.
362 2. The user creates configurations and functions, in the configurations
363 creates symbolic links to functions. This information is used when the
364 gadget's UDC attribute is written to, which means binding the gadget
365 to the UDC. The code in drivers/usb/gadget/configfs.c iterates over
366 all configurations, and in each configuration it iterates over all
367 functions and binds them. This way the whole gadget is bound.
369 3. The file drivers/usb/gadget/configfs.c contains code for
371 - gadget's config_group
372 - gadget's default groups (configs, functions, strings)
373 - associating functions with configurations (symlinks)
375 4. Each USB function naturally has its own view of what it wants
376 configured, so config_groups for particular functions are defined
377 in the functions implementation files drivers/usb/gadget/f_*.c.
379 5. Function's code is written in such a way that it uses
381 usb_get_function_instance(), which, in turn, calls request_module.
382 So, provided that modprobe works, modules for particular functions
383 are loaded automatically. Please note that the converse is not true:
384 after a gadget is disabled and torn down, the modules remain loaded.